The first draft of the 2012 Less Wrong Census/Survey is complete (see 2011 here). I will link it below if you promise not to try to take the survey because it's not done yet and this is just an example!
2012 Less Wrong Census/Survey Draft
I want three things from you.
First, please critique this draft. Tell me if any questions are unclear, misleading, offensive, confusing, or stupid. Tell me if the survey is so unbearably long that you would never possibly take it. Tell me if anything needs to be rephrased.
Second, I am willing to include any question you want in the Super Extra Bonus Questions section, as long as it is not offensive, super-long-and-involved, or really dumb. Please post any questions you want there. Please be specific - not "Ask something about abortion" but give the exact question you want me to ask as well as all answer choices.
Try not to add more than five or so questions per person, unless you're sure yours are really interesting. Please also don't add any questions that aren't very easily sort-able by a computer program like SPSS unless you can commit to sorting the answers yourself.
Third, please suggest a decent, quick, and at least somewhat accurate Internet IQ test I can stick in a new section, Unreasonably Long Bonus Questions.
I will probably post the survey to Main and officially open it for responses sometime early next week.
Some possibilities:
Patriarchy — in the sense of male control of women's bodies — might not work, reproductively speaking; since forcing or obliging a woman to submit to sexual penetration would not convey reproductive success.
There would be an evolutionary pressure driving down the pain and danger of childbirth, in that women of families where childbirth was less painful and dangerous would be more likely to choose to become pregnant.
I don't know if there's a genetic, selected predilection to rape, but if there is, it would be diminished.
On the other hand, one of the demands of first-wave feminism was the right of wives to refuse sex with their husbands, on the grounds of the dangers and pains of pregnancy. This motive would not exist — so if there had been male dominance in politics, it might have persisted more strongly for longer.
On the gripping hand, patriarchy might demand pregnancy — for instance, shifting the focus of marriage from virginity to primiparity (first pregnancy): rather than considering a woman to belong to a man if she consents to sex with him, instead considering her his if she becomes pregnant by him. Thus much of the focus of courtship and romantic tropes would center around pregnancy; and likewise young male affirmations of another man's manly success would focus on "you got her knocked up" rather than "you got in her pants".